Sun announced that the final version of StarOffice 8 is now available. The big feature Sun is touting in this release is the inclusion of the OpenDocument format for saving files. Sun claims to be the first to offer an office suite that supports the Open Source format.

The OpenDocument format was created by the Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards (OASIS). The format itself is basically an open standard for saving office documents using an XML-based file format. The fact that it is publicly accessible means it can be used by anyone without incurring licensing fees, and it aims to offer an alternative to proprietary formats such as Microsoft Word's DOC format.

Initially missing its intended release in July, StarOffice 8's belated roll-out comes with much better Microsoft Office compatibility. The main improvements include compatibility with password-protected Word and Excel documents, and animations, autoshapes, and slide transition support in PowerPoint. Users will also find a new migration wizard tool, XForms support, built-in PDF exporting, and tweaks to make the software even easier to use.

MATTHEW'S OPINION
Microsoft has yet to release the next version of its Office suite, and, much like with IE, the competition is overtaking MS Office in the features it offers and the support it gives. StarOffice now offers formidable opposition to MS Office and comes in at a much lower price. Microsoft also has the added worry that whatever users find in StarOffice is going to be available in OpenOffice free of charge very soon afterwards.

Sun has done a great job of nursing this software into something businesses can choose to use with confidence. Its continuing efforts to offer better MS Office integration/migration is the key reason it is seeing success.

We have to wait and see what the next version of MS Office has to offer, and if it is significantly better than the competition. The last few releases have seemed to bulk up on features that many just don't use. A similar direction in the next release may push people away from the bulky and expensive old hat to the cheap or even free StarOffice/OpenOffice experience.

USER COMMENTS 28 comment(s)

Wonder who is going to buy it?(12:32pm EST Wed Sep 28 2005)I mean i have tried star office and try to draw graphs with it. It just gives me pain and no gain. i failed to draw any graph on it. I have to install the trial version of office on the mac in order to draw the graphs for my homework.now they are trying to sell somethig that is so hard to work. Sigh… what a shame. – by AH MAC USER

Isn't it based on OpenOffice?(12:55pm EST Wed Sep 28 2005)Does OpenOffice have this OpenDocument format? – by yo

love it(2:58pm EST Wed Sep 28 2005)I've used StarOffice and OpenOffice for years now and have never regreted it. Plus I saved over $300 buying a new PC without the popular office suite!

Open source means freedom! – by American way

Freedom of choice(3:30pm EST Wed Sep 28 2005)You can buy StarOffice & get support & a few extra propritary things thrown in, or OpenOffice & self-support. I have used OpenOffice 1.x until this year & now using 2.x version good enough for my word processing & spreadsheet needs.

Microsoft Office 12 is due soon & has redesigned the GUI for the better (good video available to download for free). The question is do you really need all these new features? Probably not for most of us.

With Open/StarOffice at least you may run on Linux/max/Windows, so one less thing to learn.

Just to add to the mix KDE's Koffice is going to be released for Windows soon – it's a nicely integrated package too. – by OpenVMS4ever

hmm(3:41pm EST Wed Sep 28 2005)hope they fixed the problem with large excel spread sheets..Ill try it again. – by open I's

I use(5:27pm EST Wed Sep 28 2005)I use office 97. I have yet to find a reason to upgrade. It does every thing a I need it for. My kids have a good understanding of it and can do all their home work. So even the 129 for the student edition is to much, until they get something it can not do. – by Red_Dog

Microsoft Office 12 still does not support OpenDocument(5:46pm EST Wed Sep 28 2005)And that is the reason why Massachusetts won't accept Microsoft Office. They want to have all of its documents being read by ANY word processor, now and into the future.What was Microsoft's response? There are third party filters to convert to OpenDocument. What? You mean a software company can't write their own filters to support an Open Standard. – by

StarOffice(5:58pm EST Wed Sep 28 2005)I work for a major local government. We use StarOffice 7 – it is great, one 10th of the price of MS office and all the features a major organisation needs! – by BigLyle

Star Office 8(7:31pm EST Wed Sep 28 2005)I've been using Star Office 8 beta for about a year, and it works great for me. I don't create a lot of forms, etc. so I don't need a lot of MS Office features. Calc works fine.Sometimes wish the corporate office would quit upgrading MS Office, we don't use 90% of the features, so why bother? – by RJS

StarOffice/Evolution(7:58pm EST Wed Sep 28 2005)I've been using StarOffice/Evolution from about a year and finished migrating from winxp/2k to solaris10

It works just great and it stopped worms and office viruses. At least works fine for me. – by superunknown

MS Office is a not worth the price(9:50pm EST Wed Sep 28 2005)90 % of MS Office users use only 10 % of its features and pay $400 for the suite.

Sun offers an interoperable suite with more features than MS Office for free or $79 and only dumb users and corporations can continue with Microsoft crap. – by MS Office sucks

I like MS Office(10:21pm EST Wed Sep 28 2005)It just makes sense for everybody in your office to understand everybody else's files and so communicate effectively. If everybody uses Windows and Office, this is true. – by Bill

open I's(11:45pm EST Wed Sep 28 2005)OpenOffice 2 is at same level as Microsoft Excel in numbers of rows and columns. – by try it

OpenSource(12:30am EST Thu Sep 29 2005)I have recently discovered OpenOffice and Linux and I have found both to be a more than adequate replacement for Microsoft. It is about time people realised there is more to computing than Microsoft.

Why pay £500+ for software than you can get for free? OpenOffice come with a PDF converter and a Flash converter, saving even more money! – by John Bull

Macro's & Autofilter(6:02am EST Thu Sep 29 2005)I must admit that Open Office has come a long way. It still lacks in one area. It doesn't support the same power in macro's as MS. It also does not have same power in autofiltering columns. For instance, it doesn't support “contains” or “does not contain,” only = > . It is very limiting. I use it a lot. That is the only reason I hav not migrated yet. – by Johan

RE try it(8:15am EST Thu Sep 29 2005)Nope it wont open a full Excel sheet all 65,000 plus lines, causes it to choke.Also wont filter more than 45,000 lines in a collum…maybe they fixed it in this one..like i said iLL give it a go. – by open I,s

open I,s(9:38am EST Thu Sep 29 2005)

In the above article it states:“Calc's row limit has also been increased to 65536 to match Excel's, making it possible to import any Excel worksheet.”

It should work for you now. – by PCFan

RE PCFan(9:57am EST Thu Sep 29 2005)Thanx – by open I,s

There seem to be a lot of people who use 65,000 columns or(12:03pm EST Thu Sep 29 2005)need more “power” but never explain. – by hmmm

hmm(3:20pm EST Thu Sep 29 2005)still just as uselessly as annoying as the last – by in stores now!

Re:Macro's & Autofilter(11:18am EST Wed Oct 05 2005)Of course it supports “contains” … click on Edit>Find, then click on “More Options”. What you want is to click the box for “Regular Expressions”.If you need help with regular expressions, hit the help button.I've been using StarOffice/OpenOffice for years, and this is one of my favorite features.Concerning the so called “same power macros”, I would submit that the writer should actually read the documentation and try it. If you can think of it in clear, unambiguous English (or your native language) you can do it in a macro in SO/OO. Primarily you are limited by your imagination. – by Merlindale

Multilanguage support(10:11am EST Sun Oct 23 2005)One of my biggest gripes with OpenOffice 1.1 from 2004 was the inability handle furigana, the pronounciation of the Chinese characters in Japanese text, which can be written over the Chinese characters. But I continued to use it as it was, and within 6 months found the issue was fixed, and I presently use OpenOffice happily in Linux, and under Solaris, with multiple languages. I will give StarOffice a try too, I never regretted moving to OpenOffice, although some things are still a pain: major example is the inability (me or the program??) to do something like MS Word's correction mode on documents, i.e. editing them and letting the other person accept or reject corrections. I am sure something like this will soon be available though. – by Gernot Hassenpflug